X-Message-Number: 22683 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: Population concerns Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:40:40 +0100 There seems to be a confusion between overall population of the planet (prognosis good) and voluntary concentrations of people in places considered by the majority to be desirable (prognosis bad) The latter problem results in various areas starting out being desirable, people flock in and they eventually start to exhibit the environmental and economic problems that Mark Plus mentions . The latter have started to appear here in Cornwall (eg restaurant owners unable to get waitresses because they can't afford accommodation on the wages the restaurant can support) However the problem of concentration will surely reduce when technology makes it possible to make more desirable areas economically feasible to populate. This will also reduce the cost of accommodation. This cost is often high because of planning or zoning laws rather than a genuine scarcity of building land. People like to live on the edge of bodies of water, lakes oceans etc. There are many areas in the world where this is totally impracticable at the moment. But this need not always be the case with improved technology. Existing proposals for artificial island and so on will become more economically feasible as technology advances. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22683